


An Earthling's guide to dealing with Mewberty

by vegalocity



Series: The one where Star Butterfly Replaces Mineta in 1-A [1]
Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mineta Minoru Doesn't Exist, Autistic Iida Tenya, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, F/M, Fluff, No one will miss him, Pre-Relationship, Star Butterfly replaces Mineta AU, a lot of cuddling, a lot of physical affection, abusing loopholes in Mewberty, mewberty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 19:33:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16582694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vegalocity/pseuds/vegalocity
Summary: When a Mewman teenager goes through the full Transformation during Mewberty they're compelled to capture members of their preferred gender only to culminate in the abduction of their most worthy mate. The Companionshipping is a loophole that was discovered long ago, its low success rate had scared off many nobleborn and royal teenagers from searching for someone to be their Companion during the events of the transformation; Sometimes a Princess is in a position where she can't afford to go on a rampage, and her hand is forced.





	An Earthling's guide to dealing with Mewberty

**Author's Note:**

> An AU where Star went to a different Earth dimension entirely when she was sent away from Mewni.

In hindsight she should be thankful that it didn't hit in the middle of Practical Heroics or something.

Sure, it wasn't ideal that it happened during class at all, in fact she would have been most thankful if it had started before school so she could make the walk back to Momo's place, or even before they had left and she could have just called in sick that day.

But no, here Star ended up. In her desk behind Izuku, and scratching at a particular spot on her neck. And before she could even pull her hair up into a ponytail to try and alleviate whatever hairs were irritating the area, a small purple scale fell onto her notes.

Her heart stopped, and for a long moment she could only sit there in shock, feeling a different spot on her begin to itch, now the space between the left side of her jaw and her neck. Prodding tentatively at the area she felt the smoothness of heart shaped scales forming beneath her finger.

And in small little pricks, as though on the cue of her discovering them, a few more began to form along the bottom of her face.

Star shot up like a rocket, the inertia of her sheer will taking her to her feet and banging her chair against the front of Momo's desk behind her. She could already feel the heat pooling in her chest, right under her Soul Center, just as it had been described it to her.

Homeroom had hit that part in the period where it was essentially just study hall, so Aizawa had, like always, taken the opportunity to get in a quick nap. Unfortunately that also meant all eyes that cared to look were on her as she started to nervously fiddle with her hair.

By the time she actually got up to the front of the room, Star had pulled three long strands of her hair free from their jail behind her horn headband and sent them cascading over her face, eyes firmly on the ground, thankful that the odd compulsions that Mewberty was best known for hadn't quite happened yet, and even better that only boys in her age range would have any effect.

“Sensei?” She coiled the freed strands of hair around her hand, another couple of purple scales falling to the ground as she spoke.

Aizawa's glare at her was... well not as venomous as it would have been if he were actually asleep and she's woken him up, but he still looked plenty annoyed. Despite her nerves there was no time to waste.

“I need to go to the Nurse's office, It's a medical emergency.” She used her free hand to push back the hair that she'd thrown into her face. If there was one good thing about Mewberty, even if one didn't know what it was, it was a visible affliction before the worst of it started to hit.

Aizawa raised a brow at the purple scales dotting her chin, cheeks, and neck; and thankfully, didn't bother to ask her to elaborate.

At his light nod a deep relief washed over Star's shoulders.

“Iida, Go with her.”

And then it immediately died.

“Of course, Sensei!”

Nevermind this was the worst thing to happen to her ever. And she included her break up with Tom, and when she lit the kingdom on fire for the first time.

“Butterfly-kun! I shall escort you to Infirmary safely, you can put your faith in me!” Star's free hand went to grip her hair with her other hand as Tenya Iida bade her to follow him.

Her legs felt so stiff as she moved, eyes to the ground as more and more purple scales dotted her face, spread up to her forehead like so many uncomfortable zits, and slowly made their way down her arms. Thankfully it was only a few strides across the classroom, Star counted them in her head.

There were too many boys in this classroom. She felt the pull to near herself to one of them, to any of them, but Star Butterfly was nothing if not willful and she was able to get to the door without completely embarrassing herself.

Brushing past Iida and making her way into the hallway, that was the hard part. At that point Star must have looked pretty bad, because she felt Iida's hand come down to one of her shoulders, no doubt in an attempt to guide her through the doorway himself.

She felt it like a lightning bolt, the warmth of his hand making it through her blazer and shirt to her oversensitive scaly skin beneath, the hard impact to bid her legs to move her forward and the overwhelming Boy Scent that threatened to overwrite her actions.

The door slit shut behind Iida, and Star took a deep breath, running over the necessary information in her head.

“Butterfly-kun, if you're feeling unsteady, you simply need to ask, and I will be happy to assist you on the way through the halls!” If Star wasn't freaking out as much as she was she probably would have appreciated the offer a little more. As it was she didn't have the time to admire Iida's charming antics.

She grabbed his uniform lapels and forcefully pulled him down to her level. He yelped at the sudden change in her behavior, but Star didn't have _time_ to care.

“You gotta listen to me Iida-kun! This is a matter of Life and Death! I'm going through...Mewberty.” She let him go after the initial shock had kept him in place and stalked off in the vague direction of the Infirmary.

Like hell she was gonna actually go there, but if she was purposefully avoiding it it'd lead to a tangent on why she couldn't go there and nothing would get solved.

Thankfully, despite the shock, Iida was keeping pace with her. Leave it to the class speedster.

Eyes to the ground Star, eyes to the ground. Don't turn your head for anything, No matter what is said or how close that Boy Scent is to you.

“M..Mewberty you say?” Iida's—Deepmasculinedreamyattractive _BOY_ —voice was really difficult to ignore. At least since class was in session there weren't any boys lining the halls. It was just the one boy she had to deal with.

She gripped her hair a little tighter, tugging until she felt a bit of pain along her scalp.

“Well... That's a right of passage Butterfly-kun! It's nothing to be ashamed of. In fact we have something similar on Earth, I'm sure it's not really anything so sev-”

“This isn't like your weird Earth Biology and Quirk Sciencey stuff Iida!” She snapped turning her head only a little to catch the barest glimpse of his shoes. Eyes forward Star, eyes forward. “I'm from Mewni, and even over there Mewberty is dangerous! Things are gonna get really weird really quick!”

He finally sounded dubious. “What do you mean by 'weird'?”

“The kind of weird that means I can't be anywhere near boys until it's over.” At least that answer was simple enough. Mom had told her long ago what she'd gone through, and that Grandma had gone through something similar, so Star could expect no less than the Full Transformation.

Kind of hard to not think about when her escort to 'somewhere safe' was in fact a boy.

For a moment the world went hazy around the edges, the itch of growing scales made its way down her forearms, and she felt the pain start to form in her back. She didn't know much about how someone's Mewberty Wings grew in, but the pain was unexpected, and she had to stop in place for a moment to take it in. Body stiff, unpleasant shivers racing down her spine.

“Butterfly-kun?” His voice sounded so far away.

On the other side of a long tunnel

Underwater

He was a boy, wasn't he?

She looked up, more as reflex when he spoke again, and for a second she felt weak in the knees by just how _handsome_ he was.

“Butterfly-kun are you alright? If you need to take a breather we can stop for a bit, This must be a taxing experience to have you so shaken simply by the idea of going through it.”

Her hearing sharpened, listening with rapt attention as he talked, She was so busy listening to him talk that she didn't even pay any attention to what he was saying, his Boy Scent so strong and his Boy Voice so pleasant to listen to a dreamy smile crept onto her lips as he spoke.

“Tenya's a boy...”

He was so pretty when he blushed. His face lit up a bright red and he stared at her with wide eyes. Was he so unused to people calling him by his first name? Why was that such a big deal anyway?

If this was what he looked like whenever someone called him by his first name she wanted to do it every day.

He was spluttering for something to say, hands flapping up and down rapidly trying to string together a coherent sentence. At the very least, it gave her a little time for her gaze to sharpen again.

A cold dread began to roll its way through her gut as her mind returned. Star cursed quietly under her breath and bopped her forehead once.

“Sorry Iida-kun...”

He found his words then and Star elected to just keep her eyes shut.

“I-It's... Well I cannot say it isn't a problem Butterfly-kun, but it is understandable considering your situation! I will take care to stay away when your iris' take on that distinctive shape, as you're clearly not in your right mind when they begin to match your cheeks!”

“Or you can just dump me in a supply closet no one goes into and barricade the door. That might be easier.”

“Nonsense! As Class Representative it's my duty to make sure all of my classmates receive the proper medical care for their particular conditions!” If Star's knees didn't still feel weak she'd have probably ran off to lock herself away the second the thought entered her head.

All the same she should try.

While her knees were still shaking, she was able to reach the end of the hallway with zero physical contact with Iida.

And thank god, there was a supply closet in the corner beside the stairwell.

“Well this is the proper medical care.”

“Is there truly nothing that can be-” He reached out to touch her. The very tips of his fingers brushed her upper arm and it hit Star like a claw to the face. A slimy feeling made its way down her hand, scales and webbing rocketing from her fingertips and planting itself onto the front of the supply closet door.

Star yelped, and Iida retracted his hand in shock. Small silver linings, a few tugs freed her hand _and_ pulled the door open.

The dark abyss of the closet felt so cold, but it was better than the intoxicating heat that was the hallway.

She took a long few moments just standing in the darkness, her back pressed to the door and taking a few deep breaths. Cleaning fluids and the tree-smell of extra copy paper filled her nose. Her skin crawled at the unwelcome sensation, every instinct in her body was telling her to rip the door open again and bury her face into the waiting arms of the boy on the other side of it.

“Are you sure you'll be alright in there, Butterfly-kun?”

'Waiting arms' pff... Yeah, waiting to have a panic attack. Fuck you too instincts, Star wasn't about to lose a friend because she couldn't control herself.

“Yeah! Do you think you could like... tell Recovery Girl where I am? I don't wanna get in trouble for skipping class or something.” Recovery Girl would be safe. The only question would be if she could keep her mind long enough for the trip to and from the Nurse's. Honestly it might not be the best thing to leave her to her own devices and roll that die.

“Of course, I simply should be made aware if there's something you may need to let the process go smoother!”

' _You, I need you_ ' The part of her mind that she was starting to call Mewberty Star hissed, it was almost forceful enough to get the words to the tip of her tongue, but Star, if anything, was stubborn.

“Nah, There's no boy on your planet that can help this go smoother.” Well... to be fair there were no boys on Mewni that could help either. Tom flashed behind her eyes briefly, and Mewberty Star buzzed with excitement at the idea of someone calling her Ex Boyfriend to help in this matter. “The Companionshipping isn't exactly a common way of handling it, and I don't wanna make any Earthlings uncomfortable.”

“...'The Companionshipping'?”

She wanted to snap at him, to insist he go get Recovery Girl instead of worrying about the minutiae of Mewberty and things she literally just said she wouldn't subject an Earthling to. However, another wave of pain made her shout in surprise and agony instead of annoyance. The space under her arms, all down her ribcage, was starting to ache. Her other sets of arms wanting to come out.

“Butterfly-kun?” Iida knocked on the door and Mewberty Star began to chirp in the back of her head, reminding her of just how thin the doors really were, that she could open it easily. “That sounded like it was painful, are you alright?”

Maybe she did need a distraction. Just for a moment.

Her voice didn't wobble, but it was a near thing. Between shutting down Mewberty Star, recalling her lessons, and articulating them as best as she could she couldn't quite spare the mental dexterity to sound confident.

* * *

He knew he probably shouldn't have stayed to ascertain anything he could get for Butterfly. He should have left the second he was bade to to retrieve Recovery Girl and then afterward he should have simply returned to class after, perhaps, one more assurance that Butterfly was alright.

That would have been the smart thing to do.

As the Class Representative, Tenya should also take more personal responsibility in ensuring his fellow Classmates' health. Such a thing would also be proper behavior for a hero in training as well, so with that in mind perhaps instead he should have stayed until her description of 'Companionshipping' and _then_ gone to retrieve Recovery Girl, perhaps stay as she was given the proper information. Yes that would have been the best course of action, because then he could also take a note to Aizawa Sensei to assure him that the two of them did indeed meet up with Recovery Girl considering Butterfly's current medical condition. Whether that meeting was at her office or outside a supply closet wouldn't be relevant so long as Butterfly was allowed to go through her transformation in peace.

At the very least the smart thing to do would have been to get Recovery Girl at any part of this plan.

The smart thing was _not_ what he was doing at this point in time, but he found he couldn't quite help himself.

She sounded like she was in so much _pain._

And he'd be remiss, both as Class Representative and as a friend if he were to let her be alone during such a process when she'd given him the information on how to ease her burden.

Butterfly was his friend, if he could keep her from feeling too much pain during this transformation... then why on Earth wouldn't he? She said she didn't want to make someone uncomfortable by asking for assistance, but it really didn't sound like much of a problem. He wasn't exactly touch averted so he could handle the tactile affection she described.

She'd claimed that people don't normally talk while fully transformed, and that was a relief because he wasn't sure if his sanity could withstand her calling him 'Tenya' again. If she hadn't gotten her mind back in the time that she did and instead had doubled down on it he might have actually had a seizure right there in the hallway. He wasn't sure what the feeling in his gut was when it had happened, but it had been strong enough to make his brain short circuit for a solid few seconds, so he didn't want to see what would happen if such an action was repeated.

But all the same...

“If I offered my services toward this 'Companionshipping' would you accept?” There was no backing out now.

There was silence on the other side of the door for the longest time, Butterfly no doubt carefully mulling over his indirect offer.

“Well you shouldn't be offering! Most people don't hurt anyone if they don't panic, but I can't promise I won't! Besides I don't wanna like... web up your engines or something!”

Though the visual was indeed quite viscerally horrifying, her concern over his wellbeing just made him more determined to ease her suffering.

“You're in pain Butterfly-kun! Don't bother lying about it! As the Class Representative and as your friend I cannot sit idly by as you curl up in a storage closet and hope it goes away soon! The terms of this 'Companionshipping' seem manageable, and I could never fear you, so I see no harm in my offering!”

There were a few moments of silence then, no doubt as Butterfly turned over his words in her head. Then door handle jiggled once, like it was being cleared of blockage on the other side.

“....You're not still upset that I called you by your first name?” He felt his cheeks heat up a bit at the reminder, but bit down the reflexive response and waved a hand dismissively to nobody.

“You weren't in your right mind! Why would I hold such a thing against you?”

“I'm not gonna be in my right mind for the rest of this either.”

“Yes, but now I'm prepared!”

Of course he wasn't sure if the forewarning would actually do much, but in theory he'd be okay because now he knew it was a possibility.

“Okay... but you gotta sit against the door so I won't try to get out.”

“Of course.”

“And if you have to go to the bathroom you should do that now.”

Tenya smiled slightly at her weak attempt at humor, before slowly, the door creaked open.

The closet wasn't necessarily small, but he was still thankful he wasn't claustrophobic as he closed the door behind him.

The light was off in the closet, and looking into the pitch all around him, he could see only the vague outline of Butterfly against the far wall of the closet.

Just as promised Tenya carefully sat himself so his back was resting against the door. If Butterfly lost her mind to the Transformation she'd have to go through him to wreak havoc on the male student body.

“Don't turn on the light, okay? I look pretty freaky right now.” Her eyes opened then and, in the place of her perfectly normal blue iris', a pair of bright pink, bioluminescent eyes peered at him through the darkness.

He tried not to be too off-put by it. Butterfly said herself that unless someone activated her panic response while she was under the Transformation she wouldn't try to hurt or destroy anything. As she crept closer he could see the vague outline of her form through her glowing eyes, and he could have sworn he saw a pair of wings sprouting from her back

Tenya took a brief moment to clear his throat, searching in vain for the proper words to say in such a situation. But inevitably, if unsurprisingly, he came up empty. But as it was, it seemed that Butterfly was no longer interested in talking either. She blinked up at him as slowly, bit by bit, she began to close the distance between them.

He wondered if his presence had lost her the fight that she'd been valiantly holding, keeping her mind from being overwhelmed by what it was that compelled this transformation in the first place, but he was only able to entertain the thought for a moment before she placed a hand on his knee. The nerves in his lower legs were far less sensitive to stimuli as a biological response to his engines, but the light contact was nearly painful with how charged it felt.

Perhaps it was simply the context of the situation, but Tenya could have sworn for a moment that it was a response to Butterfly's current form, that because her magic was inducing her to change her shape, said magic must be pouring out of her like waves and his human biology was simply unused to such an energy output.

He had to look away from her face as she pulled herself closer, the light stain from her eyes was beginning to strain, and if he wanted to keep a jovial friendship with Butterfly after all of this was over, he would need to keep himself to some degree separated from the situation.

And then she was upon him.

* * *

To be completely honest, the webbing up to his hips, while annoying—and Tenya could only _imagine_ how difficult it would be to get the scales out come tonight—was manageable. The glowing eyes—seemingly changing in shape as he observed them, to become giant hearts—were less creepy the more he looked at them. He could even get used to the wings and the extra sets of arms, after all, the hero Hawks had wings, and Shouji had six arms, these were just temporary things for Butterfly.

No, it was the touching that was the struggle.

It was manageable at first, Butterfly was simply sitting across from him, her knees pressed against his as she leaned in to simply observe him. She had told him that proving Companionship for one going through Mewberty required 'a metric fuckton'—in her own words—of touching and being touched, so the lack of any proper contact at first had made him dubious.

He shouldn't have been surprised that it went from zero to a thousand before he could blink.

After she'd had her fill of simply watching him, Butterfly—her mind well and truly gone at this point—leaned over to take his face into one of her sets of hands. Her hands were cool against his rapidly heating up cheeks, the slick feeling of her scales gliding across his skin as she ran her fingers against his cheeks, then his jawline, then one hand focused on his cheekbones and nose while the other slid to the back of his neck.

A small bout of shivers crawled up his spine when he felt her fingers brush the back of his head, running her slick scales up and down the fuzz of his undercut. The sensation was unfamiliar, far more intimate than he'd expected it to feel, and he honestly didn't know how to feel about it. He took in a shuddering breath and she smiled at him, her grin barely visible in the dim light.

And then, as he'd been pondering over the feeling of his head being caressed, Butterfly ruined all of his chances at proper rational thought when she climbed onto his lap. His brain stuttered to a halt, his face felt as though it were on fire, and the sudden presence of her other two pairs of hands sent goosebumps up his arms.

While the pair that had initiated contact remained in their places, wandering around his face and hair, threatening to push his glasses off of his face in the process, another set were concerning themselves with his arms, and the third enjoying the area of his collarbone and shoulders.

He wasn't supposed to just be a ragdoll for Butterfly to fondle, he was supposed to reciprocate some form of physical affection, but he just couldn't manage it at the moment. His arms had so much restless energy from sheer embarrassment that if he moved them at all he'd want to stim to try and calm himself with the tactile input. But if he did that there was a chance he could frighten her.

And that was the exact opposite of what he was trying to do here.

He only had one idea to be able to fulfill his part in displaying enough affection to Butterfly without involving the possibility of such a display leading to frightening her and ruining their entire containment plan.

“Butterfly-kun....” He was never very good at controlling his tone, from a young age he was always too stiff, too formal, he emphasized odd words, but he hoped that she'd be able to detect the affection he was willing into his voice. To speak so affectionately with Butterfly, whom was no more than a friend to him, was strange. Wrong, almost. But he took a deep breath to steady his nerves, and clenched a fist into the webbing around his legs to steady his body.

“Star.” His heart was pounding in his chest, calling her by her name, without any type of honorific afterward felt, almost disgraceful. Butterfly was a classmate, and a classmate who didn't insist on a certain nickname like Tsu did. While that was bad enough, the glaring difference in their social standing made it feel even worse. She was a _Princess_ and here he was, no more than the second son of a Hero Family, calling her by her name as though... As though they were...

Butterfly let out a strange noise, he could feel more than see her wings begin to flutter. Her hair, once hanging like a curtain around the two of them began to lift by an unseen force. The hands on his head settled down to his cheeks, framing his face in her scaly hands. Slowly, she guided him to look at her directly again.

She tilted her head to the side, observing him almost like a fox would a particularly interesting mouse. Her thumbs rubbed circles into his cheekbones, and Tenya realized with a start that she was waiting for him to do something. He still wasn't sure if he could trust his arms, but if he did nothing that might be worse in the long run.

So he bit the bullet.

His hands were trembling, out of embarrassment or pent up energy he didn't care to parse out, but carefully, gingerly, he copied her motion, cupping her head in his hands.

Her teeth reflected against the glow from her eyes, showing her teeth when she grinned felt surprisingly less predatory than he'd initially thought it would.

It was like a pressure valve had been released on his nerves. The nervous energy in his arms began to ebb away, his breathing went back under control, his thoughts were back in order.

“Aaaaagaaaaiiinnnn” Her voice sounded so strange, raspy and echoing, almost like a thousand voices were speaking through her, dragging her words out to near incomprehensibility.

But he did understand her. He wished he didn't, but he did. And he wasn't exactly in a situation where he could argue the point.

For a moment the familiar uncomfortable anxiety started to roll in his gut, the first time was hard enough, but he wasn't sure if he could repeat it. It only lasted for a moment however, Butterfly leaned in close, and her other two sets of hands stilled where they were on his body, thumbs repeating the slow circles she was still rubbing into his cheeks, and the feeling vanished almost completely. Replaced by a deep, near overwhelming calm.

“Star.”

This wasn't quite natural, was it? She was doing something to keep the both of them calm. Her grin widened, and for the briefest of moments her cheek markings lit up to match her eyes before fading. She tilted her head to nuzzle into his palms, a small trail of purple scales coming off into his hands.

Perhaps it was magic, a strange manifestation of her magic that could only be activated during The Companionshipping, or simply a pheromone that she could release after prolonged contact with someone while she was in this form; something that acted as a weak tranquilizer to keep her companion calm.

Star pushed the two of them closer together, turning a decent distance to the smallest sliver of space, just enough to fit a pair of her hands, still resting on his collarbone. Slowly, as though she were sorry to do so, she removed her hands from his face—and for a brief, strange moment, he mourned the lack of contact—to instead take his hands in her own, removing them from her face and placing them on her shoulders instead.

This time he actually knew exactly what she was asking for without her having to try and speak.

Uraraka had told him once that he gave surprisingly good hugs, something Modoriya agreed on, and even Star herself had sung the praises of his ability, so he hoped that even while under the thrall of Mewberty she would still enjoy the sensation. Obediently, she moved the hands that were exploring his collarbone to instead wrap around his center. The arms that had been caressing his own remained where they were, and her final set moved to wrap around his own neck, hugging him back with as much strength as she dared.

They were completely flush against eachother now, the few strands of Stars hair that had not been gathered into the peculiar style she was currently sporting tickled the side of his face as she moved. And move she did, nuzzling her face into his neck.

Whatever it was that was keeping him so calm was still doing its job, but his face still grew a little warm at the sensation.

He squeezed Star a little tighter.

* * *

Butterfly was incredibly embarrassed after she changed back, there were purple scales absolutely everywhere when she was back under her own control, including covering the both of their uniforms. Tenya waved away her concerns easily, but the remnants of her cocoon did worry him a bit.

While UA did have a janitorial staff on hand—as the size of the school made it simply too much work for the students to take on alone, students would normally only clean the classrooms and a couple of high traffic hallways—He had to make a quick debate in his own head as to what should be done regarding the purple webbing and scales that they most certainly couldn't leave alone. In the end he suggested to inform Recovery Girl of Butterfly's successful transformation and while he was doing so for Butterfly to get started on cleaning up the closet, after which he'd join her.

He doubted they'd get into too much trouble, simply the fact that Butterfly's condition was temporary and he at the time couldn't just _carry_ her the rest of the way would explain her inability to check in with Recovery Girl and his inability to return to class afterward.

And it wouldn't hurt if they cleaned up the mess without prompting.

All the same Tenya was dreading the amount of information the two of them had already missed. They'd been hidden away for Classic Literature _and_ Mathematics—worrisome granted Math was Butterfly's weakest subject—They'd only been...preoccupied...for those two classes at least, so it wouldn't be _that_ much to catch up on.

He'd already brushed his uniform free of any loose scales by the time he'd made his way to the infirmary, and glanced at his reflection in various windows to check for any stray webbing or scales in his hair, but the smile Recovery Girl gave him after he explained the situation felt... just a little too knowing for his comfort zone.

Though she reprimanded him for trying to solve the issue himself instead of coming to get someone who had a better idea of what to do—and he didn't quite have the nerve to say that due to Butterfly's alien heritage, no one on this planet would have a better idea what to do—she all the same wrote a quick note to explain both Butterfly's recovery and his own necessity in ensuring it.

By the time he'd delivered the message to Midnight Sensei—with the explanation that he had to double back to help clean up with Butterfly—and made his way back to the closet, Butterfly had been so lost in her own world of meticulous sweeping and humming songs to herself that she didn't even notice his reappearance. Her back was to him, a few stray scales still clinging to her hair in places she probably couldn't see without assistance.

And just barely poking out, almost totally hidden from the sea of blonde hair surrounding them, was a pair of wings. He could only assume that they were what her wings looked like while she was transformed, only far smaller, a deep purple to match the scales she swept up.

For far longer a moment than he initially thought, Tenya was caught off guard. Butterfly had claimed that the Transformation had been worked through without a hitch, but he hadn't thought that she would still come out of it with some sort of permanent change. Was developing wings normal after a right of passage such as this? He supposed he'd never seen what Star's parents looked like, for all he knew both of them could have wings and Star was finally matching her family.

After another embarrassingly long moment he realized he'd referred to Butterfly by her first name in his head and mentally smacked himself. That was no way to think about a classmate without her permission!

He cleared his throat and when Butterfly turned to look at him, her excited grin was almost impossible to not mirror.

“Iida-kun!” She chirped. Carefully, she set her broom down and ran up to him. “My Mewberty wings came in!” She turned her back to him again, this time pulling up her hair to give him a better view of the fluttery purple appendages. “They're too weak to fly with yet, but I gave Mom a quick call to tell her about everything, and she said that I was the first princess in generations to go through The Companionshipping instead of going on a rampage! So I owe you BIG for helping me through it!” She turned to face him again, this time to lean in and give him a quick hug.

His heart leaped into his throat.

“Just name your price! I can make you a delicious Mewni Lunch tomorrow! Or we can go dimension hopping, just you and me! I'll pay for everything too, since most places don't take Earth Yen! I know you don't like the Bounce Lounge, but there's so many other cool places I can show you!” She began to list various dimensions and teenager hotspots in said dimensions as she turned away to return to sweeping.

Tenya had to remind himself to breathe before he joined her.

Maybe it was some lingering effect of whatever she'd unintentionally drugged him with earlier; but it was difficult to focus on the task at hand. Quite a few times Tenya found himself simply listening to Butterfly's voice as she rambled, hopping from places for them to visit, to an anecdote about her friends back on Mewni, to a quick explanation of why residents of Garbage Beach had turned down offers to clean up the land and change the name of their home.

A lasting effect of whatever magic or pheromone or whatever it was, that was all.

And if he found himself imagining a situation where she'd need his help in a similar way again... well that was just his ego talking.

He really needed a better reign on that damn thing.

**Author's Note:**

> Tenya Iida unable to recognize his own feelings and interpreting them as ego 2kforever


End file.
